On the Road!

Well, we are officially on our way to start our new career as missionaries! We began our trip by driving to Ohio to visit Josh's grandparents. From there we drove to Nashville, on our way to Alabama. In Nashville we were able to spend some time with Josh's uncle. Finally, today, we made our way down to Birmingham, AL where we will spend the next few days being a part of a conference at one of the local churches. We are looking forward to spending time with our collegues and learning more about South Africa and our work there.

So far we have learned a few things about South Africa that we did not know. First, the AIDS virus is spreading very quickly throughout South Africa. The need to educate the people about the seriousness of the disease and how the disease is spread is so great. OneHope missionaries are often called upon to teach teachers about the disease so they can teach their students. There is so much misinformation going around about AIDS, and the effects are devastating.

We also learned more about the place where we will be living. It is a lodge on a game reserve, and it is large enough to host many interns at one time. It sits on about 2500 acres of land, and is in a rural community. The closest small town is at least 30 minutes away. We have seen pictures, and we are excited to see it in person.

We will leave for South Africa on August 28. We will fly from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to Atlanta, GA. From there we will fly straight to Johannesburg (15 hour flight!) Then, it is just a 3 hour drive to the Hope Lodge.

For now we will sign off. It is late and we have been traveling all day and are looking forward to a great night's sleep! We will keep you posted!

Let the Countdown Begin!

It's hard to believe that we are leaving St. Louis in 20 days! Time is flying by and it seems like we have so much to do in so little time. But, we know that the Lord will be with us as we prepare to make this transition, and that brings us comfort.

In order to downsize our things before we leave, we are having a garage sale this Saturday, July 11 at Kelly's dad's house. We are hoping to sell a lot of things, which will make it easier to pack in the upcoming weeks.

We have had 2 family weddings to attend over the past couple of weeks, and it has been so much fun to see family. We were very blessed to have the opportunity to say "See you later" to family that we won't see for some time. It was hard to leave them, but we must go where the Lord leads, and every one of our family members has been so supportive. We are truly blessed!

Please pray with us that the garage sale goes well, and that we will be well organized as we pack and prepare to head to Florida on July 26th. Thank you again for all of your support! We appreciate all of you so much!